and germany have tried to apply pressure on russia to try to de-escalate the crisis in ukraine, the u.s. taking the lead on sanctions, while chancellor merkel has tried to use her closer relationship with russian president vladimir putin to resolve the crisis, but it's not clear whether those closer ties are helping. in a phone conversation that the two leaders had on thursday, putin told merkel that he wants to see ukrainian troops pull out of the southeastern part of their own country. white house press secretary jay carney called that suggestion preposterous. now, the white house expects both leaders, both president obama and angela merkel, to talk about another round of sanctions against russia. that next round would likely be targeted at russia's economy, key sectors of the russian economy, such as its banking and energy sectors, but that would hurt the german economy as well. so, expect that question to come up at a news conference with president obama and chancellor merkel later today. also, one other big question to expect would be about those revelations that the u.s. has been